Heads of the USA men's and women's college squash leagues announced this week the inauguration of the CSA (Collegiate Squash Association). CSA has been created to promote and oversee both men's and women's collegiate squash, according to co-presidents David Talbott (Yale - mens) and John Illig (Bates - womens).

"It's an exciting time for college squash," said Talbott, from his office at the ultra-modern Brady squash complex at Yale. "We have expansion in the number of teams, on both the men's and women's side, we have great new facilities to play in across the board, and we have crowds of greater than 1000 attending the big matches."

The CSA will guide college squash through this growth phase, working to expand participation level, numbers of teams, and assisting in development of new program.

UNIFYING MEN AND WOMEN
"The women's squash teams are excited to be joining forces with the men's teams on the promotional side," said John Illig, women's prexy. "With new teams emerging, such as the new George Washington Team, the Navy Women, and others the quality of women's college squash in the USA is on the upswing."

VISIBILITY
Talbott cited three important factors in the creation of the CSA. The first is the need to increase visibility and publicity about college squash. The CSA has created a partnership with SquashTalk.com to create an immediate increase in visibility. This will give the college squash programs access to the more than 1 1/2 million visits per month to the SquashTalk internet news site. Along with that will be an increased emphasis throughout the college teams in providing accurate scheduling and results information. This timely information will all be immediately accessible at www.collegesquash.info.

TEAM DEVELOPMENT
The second factor is team development. The CSA is putting in place several programs to help schools start up squash programs. These include experienced CSA coaches who can come onsite and help a school to set up its squash activities. Another idea the CSA is considering is to add a five-man team division to the end of season men's national championships. There are several club-level teams which have enthusiastic participation, but have difficulty fielding a full nine-man team for the championships in February.

RECRUITING
The third factor is to increase flow of players from juniors to team play in college squash. "With the increase in junior squash ranks across the USA, the college teams would like to make those juniors more aware of all the college programs and their teams and coaches," said Talbott. "Not everyone can play on the top five teams, and we want all the youngsters out there to know that there are a lot of quality squash programs in college, and that they are on the increase."

"We have also seen a big increase in inquiries from international high school players over the past year." said Illig. "What we need to do is provide more information so that they can understand the choice and realities of coming to the USA for college and for squash.

"We are in the process of creating a permanent CSA logo, as well as a CSA web page, which will serve as the official United States collegiate squash informational site. The CSA web site will be completed sometime in October 2002, and is already online at www.collegesquash.info," said Illig.

The CSA has already seen significant new team activities. Middlebury, University of Illinois, and University of Utah are all at this writing potential new competitors for the 02-03 college season.

Over 30 teams are expected to compete for the women's national title this season. (photo © 2002 Debra Tessier)